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Alexandre Pantoja does not have a mapped-out goal to fight Merab Dvalishvili inside of the octagon for a multitude of reasons. The UFC flyweight champion spoke on this during a recent post to his personal Instagram page that was translated from Portuguese to English.
That translated post from Pantoja's page was turned into a graphic as well as a tweet for the X account @MMAUNCENSORED1. When discussing how a large number of his followers want him to pursue bantamweight gold to make history and posing the question of if the Brazilian combatant even needs to make that history.
In an excerpt from his statement, Alexandre Pantoja said:
"Along with DJ and Benavidez, I am the fighter with the most wins in the history of my division [13]. I am also, along with Demetrious and Deiveson, the athlete with the most wins by fast track [7]. I am the only Brazilian UFC champion at the moment and I have defended the belt 3 times."
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He added:
"I feel confident in the 57 kg category, why would I change divisions? And what else to prove? I even think that my game would work well against Merab, but what about then? The UFC has already signaled that it's not interested in champions from more than one division, due to the delay that ends up occurring in defending the title."
Check out Alexandre Pantoja's comments below:
Alexandre Pantoja and potential next steps for him
With Alexandre Pantoja focusing his attention on the 125-pound class, there are clearly some intriguing propositions for him in the flyweight division. There have been rumblings of his next fight being in the summer, with rumors surrounding him competing during International Fight Week.
The 35-year-old is rumored to defend his title against Kai Kara-France at UFC 317, although nothing has been officially confirmed as of this writing. Kara-France is presently ranked number four at flyweight and is coming off a first-round knockout of former UFC flyweight title challenger Steve Erceg in August last year.
The two also have a history with one another that dates back almost 10 years. Pantoja and Kara-France competed in what was ultimately an exhibition contest as part of the 24th season of 'The Ultimate Fighter' with the former defeating the latter by way of unanimous decision in July 2016.
The native of Rio de Janeiro also may find himself fighting a teammate later this calendar year as American Top Team compatriot Kyoji Horiguchi returns to the UFC against Tagir Ulanbekov in June. Both Pantoja and Horiguchi seem open to a fight if things build to a point where the UFC wants to book that matchup.
